Arrowhead Innovation Network Advisory Council

Barbara Brazil

Barbara left part-time retirement to accept a full time position as Deputy Secretary of the New Mexico’s Economic Development Department.

She is the former President of New Mexico First, a statewide public policy not-for-profit. Prior to New Mexico First, she retired from Intel Corporation in Rio Rancho where she worked as the Manager of Government Affairs and Public Affairs. Before her career at Intel, Barbara worked as a public relations staff manager at U.S. West Communications in Albuquerque and spent 12 years working for the state’s largest savings and loan association. She has also worked as the community relations director for the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, was public relations manager for the United Way of Greater Albuquerque, and public information director for the YMCA in Albuquerque.

Barbara served on two of Governor Richardson’s appointed boards; the Technology Research Collaborative and the state Ethics Task Force. Previously, Governor Johnson appointed Barbara to the New Mexico Information Technology Commission and Governor King appointed her to the State Personnel Board and then to the Board of Regents at the University of New Mexico, where she served as Secretary of the Board and Chair of the academic and student affairs committee.

Her community service includes terms as Chair of the United Way of Central New Mexico Board, the New Mexico Business Roundtable, the Association of Commerce and Industry, Rio Rancho Chamber, Rotary and the New Mexico Chapter of the PRSA, two advisory boards for the University of New Mexico, the Rio Rancho Economic Development Board as well as the AAA Foundation national advisory board. She also served for a short period on the Kirtland Partnership Board. She is a graduate of Leadership New Mexico.

Barbara is a graduate of Oklahoma State University; an accredited member of the Public Relations society of America (PRSA), and has served on numerous community and state boards and commissions.

John J. Chavez

Mr. Chavez is the President of the New Mexico Angels. President since 2008, he has been an angel investor since 2003. Mr. Chavez is also the Managing Director of Phase One Ventures, a start-up fund out of Santa Fe, NM. Outside of the Angels, he is the President of Tafoya and Brainerd Partners LLC, a nationwide business development consulting firm. Prior to his work in consulting, Mr. Chavez was appointed Cabinet Secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department by by New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. During his six year tenure as Tax Secretary he also served as the President of the Federation of Taxation Administrators for one year.
Mr. Chavez is a Member of the Board of Directors of the University of New Mexico Anderson School Foundation.
Mr. Chavez received the following degrees from New Mexico State University:

Master of Business Administration

Bachelor of Art in Economics

Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance

Jackie Mitchell Edwards

Jackie Mitchell Edwards is a Charles Schwab Independent Branch Leader in Las Cruces, N.M., where she guides clients on a wide range of financial topics including investment advice, financial planning and retirement planning.

Prior to affiliating with Charles Schwab, Edwards served as the Chief Operating Officer of The Paso del Norte Group, a bi-national membership organization of business and civic leaders from the Paso del Norte region, to promote economic, social and cultural vitality of the region by cooperative effort, social interaction and the free exchange of ideas and views.

Before her time at The Paso del Norte Group, Edwards was a wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch in Las Cruces and a financial advisor at Waddell & Reed in Las Cruces and El Paso, Texas, where she focused on comprehensive financial planning and consultative financial advice for individuals, families, businesses and small foundations. Edwards also practiced corporate and securities law in New York City for 16 years in various positions.

Edwards is a graduate of Princeton University and NYU Law School. She is a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) and a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC). Edwards grew up in El Paso and now lives in Las Cruces with her husband.

John Freisinger

John Freisinger is the President and CEO of Technology Ventures Corporation.

Before joining TVC, Mr. Freisinger worked in a range of leadership roles with several venture-backed entrepreneurial companies including the roles of COO of Smart Systems Technologies and VP of Sales and Marketing for Essential Communications. His successful exits include sales to two publicly-traded companies, SBS Technologies, Inc (Nasdaq:SBSE) and ODS/Intrusion.com (Nasdaq:INTZ).

Mr. Freisinger’s early work was conducted in the former Soviet republics with Access Russia for Coca-Cola Refreshments Moscow.

John is a graduate of the University of New Mexico where he currently teaches classes in Entrepreneurism. He resides in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and twin children.

Bobby Lutz

Bobby Lutz came to New Mexico State University to play golf. The native of Oklahoma and his dad were checking out colleges but after meeting the Aggie men’s golf coach Herb Wimberly, the decision was easy. Now thirty years later, Bobby credits much of his business success to Coach Wimberly and the education he received while at NMSU. He also credits his assistant coach Mickey Clute who took so much time with him he thought he was the only player on the team.

During his days at New Mexico State University Lutz earned a bachelor of business administration in 1973 and an MBA in 1975. “I was fortunate that I experienced incredible times while at NMSU,” Lutz says. “I particularly remember the time I spent on the golf team and as a member of SAE fraternity.”

Lutz, a highly successful businessman and entrepreneur in the Dallas, TX, area, first re-connected with NMSU through a phone call from a student working in the Aggie Pride Call Center. He is now giving back to his alma mater in several ways. He created a full-ride scholarship for a student in the College of Business, preferably a member of the men’s golf team. He has also served as “executive in residence” for the college. During that fall semester, he visited the campus every month for several days. He presented to classes, mentored students, spoke to the golf team, met with faculty, and provided one-on-one consultations for aspiring entrepreneurs at the Arrowhead Center.

Even with a demanding schedule as CFO and owner of G.L. Seaman and Company, one of the largest, full-service Knoll dealers in the Southwest, Bobby currently serves on the NMSU Foundation Board and the Arrowhead Advisory Council. He takes the initiative to engage fellow alums and donors with NMSU, and the Foundation, especially those from Dallas.
Bobby and his wife Rebecca are active in the Northern Texas community. They donate both time and contributions to a number of non-profit organizations

Elizabeth Mata

For over 20 years, Elizabeth has served the patent needs of clients, including universities, research institutions, hospitals, and biotechnology companies of all sizes, from start-ups to international corporations, on all aspects of complex intellectual property portfolio management. Her clients benefit from an in-depth understanding of their technology and business goals and a continuity resulting from a long-standing relationship. Several of her current clients are those she first represented when she joined the firm in 1992.

Elizabeth assists clients in the biotechnology field, addressing biotechnology advancements in the areas of molecular, cellular, structural, cell and developmental biology, protein and nucleic acid chemistry, genetics, genomics, epidemiology and biostatistics, pharmaceuticals, proteomics, immunology, assays and diagnostics. She counsels on strategic patent prosecution and enforcement internationally, as well as in the United States, and on patentability, patent validity, patent term extensions, freedom-to-operate, interference and infringement matters.

Dr. Reynaldo (Reynie) Ortiz

Reynie Ortiz is a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his family lineage dating to the 16th century Spanish settlers of the new western colony known as New Spain. He studied engineering at New Mexico State University achieving AS and BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering, a Masters of Science in Management from Stanford University, and an Honorary Doctorate in Law from New Mexico State for his extensive international telecommunication achievements.

Dr. Ortiz held executive positions at IBM, US West Inc., and Qwest International where he was responsible for creating international businesses in data networks, mobile wireless phones and cable television. As President of US West International he lead the introduction of the first mobile wireless phone services into Hungry and the Czech Republic, and built cable television network businesses in France, Great Britain and Hong Kong. He served as President of US West Cellular, overseeing mobile wireless phone and paging operations in 15 US states. Reynie led the international expansion of fiber optic networks for Qwest into Europe & Asia via undersea cables and fiber network extensions into Mexico. As an entrepreneur, he created start-up companies in mobile texting, European internet exchange centers, and cable television services.
Dr. Ortiz served on the International Business Roundtable Board, and was founding Board member of the US/China Chamber of Commerce and the EU Internet Consortium. Reynie was appointed by President H.W. Bush to serve on the Presidents Council on Rural America and served on the Advisory Council for the Small Business Administration appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He also served on the Board of Directors for United Way, the Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado, and the Public Service Company of New Mexico and was an Advisor to the National Library of the Medicine Board of Trustees.

Reynie currently serves as the Investment Committee Chairman for the New Mexico State University Foundation Board and St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees. He is married to Katie and is blessed with two daughters, a son and three grandsons.

Deborah Peacock

Deborah Peacock is the President/CEO and Managing Partner of Peacock Myers, P.C., Intellectual Property Law Services, with its primary office in Albuquerque and satellite offices in New York and Washington D.C. Deborah is a Registered Patent Attorney, and Registered Professional Engineer. She provides legal and business/technology advice to clientele worldwide. Her particular expertise involves complex transactions and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies (internationally).

Deborah obtained her B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1978 and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1985. She is a licensed attorney in New Mexico, Colorado and New York. Deborah previously worked in the mining industry in Zeehan, Tasmania and at Kennecott Copper in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the first woman front-line foreman (since World War II) at Kennecott’s Utah Copper Division in the late 1970s.

Some of her technology areas include patents (U.S. and international) for chemical and mineral processing, mining, metallurgy, materials science, environmental technologies, water treatment, energy, and alternative energy. She is also highly involved in the venture capital and angel investor community in New Mexico.

Deborah received two appointments from Governor Susana Martinez when the Governor took office in 2011. Deborah serves as Chair of the Environmental Improvement Board (through 2014), which passes all New Mexico regulations concerning environmental matters. She is also a Regent at the New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology (through 2016).

Deborah also serves on other boards and committees, including the Albuquerque Community Foundation, Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum, New Mexico Angels, Kirtland Air Force Base Partnership Committee, New Mexico Israel Business Exchange and Mayor’s Prosperity Committee. Deborah is also a member of the International Women’s Forum (NM and NY), New Mexico and National Society of Professional Engineers, Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME), and Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.

Deborah has received numerous awards and professional recognition including the Colorado School of Mines Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award (2013), 2012 Engineer of the Year (Albuquerque Chapter NMSPE), Best Lawyers in America (over 16 years), Martindale Hubbell AV (highest rating), Super Lawyers, Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers, Ethics in Business, Best of the Bar, New Mexico Bar Quality of Life Employer, New Mexico Business Weekly Power Broker, Governor’s Volunteerism award, YWCA Women on the Move, and Flywheel Venture’s Red Paperclip award.

Deborah is married to Nate Korn and they love to travel in his private plane. Deborah is also a musician (piano, marimba and percussion), and enjoys rock collecting and anything related to airplanes, rocket ships, space exploration and the arts.

Lee Rand

Mr. Rand has over 18 years of experience starting and managing technology related businesses at both startups and large corporations. Prior to joining Sun Mountain, Mr. Rand founded Knogee, a semantic search company, ran business development for Intel’s consumer electronics group, launched and managed the product marketing and standards team for Intel’s blade based server initiatives and led product management at semiconductor start-up Netboost (acquired by Intel). Mr. Rand also has extensive business consulting experience having worked at Ernst and Young early in his career and as an independent consultant brought in by investors and the board to work with start-ups on strategy and operations. Mr. Rand has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a dual BA in computer science and mathematics from Cornell University.
Mr. Rand is a Board Member of Sun Mountain portfolio companies Skorpios Technologies, TriLumina Corporation, Incitor, Comet Solutions, JackRabbit Systems, KiwiLimon, and FINAE. Mr. Rand also serves on the Limited Partner Advisor Committee for a number of private equity funds.

Stuart Rose

Ph.d., Founder of The BioScience Center

Dr. Rose has over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to establishing The BioScience Center in 2012, he served as founder and President/CEO of Oso Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, a contract manufacturing organization for injectable pharmaceuticals.

Before founding Oso Biopharmaceutical, he held executive positions with Penick Corporation (President/CEO), ICN – now Valeant – Pharmaceuticals (Vice President of Worldwide Manufacturing and VP/GM of ICN Europe), and Par Pharmaceuticals (Senior VP). He spent the majority of his early career with American Cyanamid’s pharmaceutical arm, Lederle Laboratories, where he rose to Vice President of International Manufacturing and Logistics.

Dr. Rose is also a Director of Agilvax, a start-up entity with a novel platform for the development of vaccines; a Director of Oligocide, a start-up developing antimicrobial chemical compounds that attract and then kill bacteria, viruses and some fungi; and an investor/advisor in a number of other biotechnology start-ups. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

George Ruth

Sr. Vice President, Citizens Bank of Las Cruces

Ronald W. White

Ronald W. White is an El Paso based independent wealth advisor with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. He is a member of the Executive Council and leads a team of dedicated professionals managing the financial affairs of a select group of families and trusts nationwide.
Prior to serving as branch manager and leader of an investment research, management, and wealth services team for 19 years, his professional experiences include three years as syndicate manager at A.G. Edwards & Sons. From 1988-91, he served as Associate Director of the University of Texas El Paso’s athletic fundraising organization. From 1982 to 1988 he acted as principal and managing broker in commercial real estate development operations, management, sales, and leasing.
Ron graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Business Administration Marketing in 1981. He also holds numerous professional licenses, awards, and certifications.
In addition to national, state, and professional regulatory organizations, Ron is active in The Borderplex Alliance and El Paso Downtown Rotary.
Ron is married to Melissa and they have two grown sons, Randy and Brandon.